twin cities model railroad museum

We took our grand kids here and they just loved it. They were able to drive the trains and interact with the trains. One place you just watch the trains and the other you get to run them. This was a fun place for everyone. We will go back.

I am old enough to remember meeting my aunt from Texas arriving on the Old Milwaukee terminal, downtown Minneapolis. I have also taken the Empire Builder out west several times. Our adopted granddaughter has a fascination for trains so we took her to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum in Bandana Square, St Paul right off Energy Park Drive east of Snelling Av. Two retired RR engineers run the place. If you strike up a conversation with them they will start up all the bells and whistles of the train and streetcar models running on a mockup of the Grand Central station and RR roundhouses of yesteryear. The room was a spectacular display of lovingly recreated scenes of yesteryears RR and streetcars of St Paul and Mpls. Our granddaughter played nonstop with the wood model trains and then later running the throttle of the electric train in the adjacent room. Admission is $6 per adult. Parking is free in the ramp. Please take time to view this gem!

Took the grandkids for "night trains" and then over to the second building to see all of the other layouts. Really a great experience for them. Since it's run largely by volunteers, it has a nice family feel to it. The big layout in the main building is as good as you'll see anywhere. Bravo!!

After visiting the Minnesota Zoo down in Apple Valley I wanted to give this place a try. I was expecting trains but there were lots of them running and on display. It's in what appears to be a renovated old railroad station/warehouse and you wouldn't expect this place to be here. Everything was done in great detail from the trees to the water and much else. They have a building across the street that's opened on the weekends that has many different gauges of model railroads on display. There's even one with a amusement park in which you can operate the rides. There's also a thomas the tank layout for kids.

My husband, the train buff, had heard about this place from a friend. We almost gave up trying to find the big model train layout location. It's in a building that appears to be entirely occupied by a medical clinic. We walked around the entire building and finally on the east side was a sign padlocked to a pole that said the model railroad museum was in this building up the stairs. The model train layout is very impressive and it is plain to see that many hours were involved in building it. There is a second site directly out the back door of this facility that is interactive and more kid-friendly. This venue had quite a few children playing with the trains. A good place to take your kids for a couple of hours. The admission price did get us into both buildings.

Just wanted to check it out and it was worth taking my 3 year old to.He loved it.Myself would not have went there myself, but if a person is into that sort of thing it is pretty neat. The staff was very helpful, and even will probably get my dads old train set out(its is more than likely 60 years old) and fix it up for my son and also out of the memory of my dad.The staff gave me very good pointers on how to do that.

I've reviewed this attraction before, but I didn't visit the place during the weekend, when they open up their other building. Yes, they have another building right across from their original site, and it has trains, trains and more trains! It is truly toy train heaven! I lost count of how many separate layouts they have in there. It's somewhere between 12 and 18. But when you're having that much fun, why would you bother to stop and count? Besides layouts to view, they also have a Thomas the Tank Engine layout for the kids, and a small interactive Marx layout that you can operate. If you're a fan of three rail O gauge, you're going to want to stay until closing time!

We liked the model display. The train display was huge. My son and I collect trains and thought they'd have more of the old train stuff for sales. We disliked the cost was a little high for the amount of time we spent there.

My kids are train obsessed. So this was the perfect place to spend an afternoon. One building packed full of all sizes of running model trains. It will be a regular for our family.

This was the last night of the Night Trains run; it was my first time experiencing it. Loved it! There was a nice mix of simple and detailed displays, and even someone not overly familiar with model trains (like me) can enjoy everything. I also watched a mini train repair lesson from one of the volunteers - he was great with the kids who wanted to see how everything works, but was equally great when I talked to him (turns out we're both professors in 'real life'). I plan to go back when they start it up again in Nov. and Dec.

If you love all the old Lionel toy trains than this place is for you. the people there are all volunteers, and they love what they are doing. They will take the time to spend with you and talk, and share all their knowledge... and they have a wealth of knowledge! It is not a real big place but we enjoyed our visit. I wish we had just one of the trains they have.

This place is magical! You are intantly taken back to childlike imagination while watching trains winding their way through elaborate settings. You want to peer into each car as it chugs on past. This is truly a remarkable creation of miniature reality. The adults are nearly as mesmerized (sometimes more so!) as the children! It is very near the Como Park Zoo, so it is a perfect combo for a day.

My son and I went, he enjoyed it a lot, there is even a display of he city. We both realyy enjoyed doing this. Jops you enjoy to.

There are two parts, the main "museum" and the Toy Train Division. The latter, in the neighboring building, is open only on Saturday and Sunday. But the price is the same when it's closed. So get both by going on a weekend. In fact the Toy Train part is at least twice as big. The difference is that it's a bunch of personal model train layouts belonging to different people, each of which has his own preferred design. One is a winter theme, another has an amusement park, and so on. There are numerous opportunities for hands-on (in a minor way) to make stuff happen. The main museum is just one very large (but very well done) single layout of the twin cities, with numerous trains running around. A couple of buttons to push, but mostly it's just looking.I have to admit, I first thought I was finished in 10 minutes. But having paid, I looked for more to do. That's when things actually started to get more interesting. There's plenty of detail, if you just take the time to look. Plenty of double entendres, such as a brown tanker car from Phartz, makers of fine baked beans, transporting natural gas, a cattle company saying they're bullshippers, ... you get the idea.To call this a museum is a stretch. It's all about model trains. But they've done it very well. Model train enthusiasts will be in heaven. Others will still have an enjoyable 90 minutes or so - on a weekend - an hour at most otherwise.

This Museum is full of trains and fun. It can bring out the kid in anyone. There are just so many things to touch, see and climb on. The volunteers are spectacular!